10 March 2005

4 comments:

I love how he tied in the fossil fuel concept at the end. Especially since my car is in the shop and I'm mad at those darn "Arabs" who own the 7-11 for raising the prices.

Recently the theory that we are always fighting the next war was brought up in conversation (did I bring it up?), anyway, gaining ground in the middle east seems to have something to do with territory as well as fuel. Who else will step in and "spread democracy"? Russia? Nope... China.

That's my theory for the day, but I hate talking politics cause it reveals my indifferent ignorance and belief that only aesthetic experience is worth thinking about.

Anyway, Matt did you get Debs via Vonnegut? I know you are a voracious reader, just curious. I've had to mention him in teaching my US Hist class (again, I say ignorance)--so I got my Debs via Bob Jones' curriculum.

"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I'm of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

Last thing--glad to see V'gut mentions Crime and Punishment as great literature--oh the dispicable human condition has never (?) been depicted better.

I believe K. V. first recommended Debs, and I really need to read a biography or something. From what I know about him I can say this: I am not a socialist, but even so I believe (with some certainty) that no president in the history of our country would be fit even to criticise Eugene V. Debs.

As for K. V.: I hope I will be 1/50th the writer and thinker he is when I turn 81! God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut.

It's a good example, Camus. Albert lived through tuberculosis, a disease that spared no one else I've ever heard of, anyway, only to die in an automobile accident. I believe he was in the States, too, at the time.

Nice tie-in on the Beatitudes vs. the Ten Commandments. I've always felt a little guilty preferring the Old Testament to the New, the Old with all its death and lack of forgeveness, the curse, etc. It really comes down to trust, but if I had to accept a mistranslation, I'd take the Beatitudes over the Commandments any day of the week.